RIM is giving developers a reason to register for their upcoming BlackBerry 10 Jam happening at the same time as the BlackBerry World conference. At BlackBerry 10 Jam in Orlando May 1 - 3 2012, RIM will launch the BlackBerry 10 developer tools in beta, and to help the developers who want to developer and test their software, RIM is giving developer attendees a limited edition developer prototype device - the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha. This is not a BlackBerry 10 smartphone - it is a prototype running a modified version of the PlayBook OS which will help developers design their apps for the BlackBerry 10 smartphone form factor. It's not the final hardware or OS - it's a device to help developers get started with designing for what's coming. Here is more from RIM:

"The purpose of this seeding is to give BlackBerry 10 Jam developer attendees a testing device to create excitement as they start to develop BlackBerry 10 applications alongside us.

To be clear, this is not a BlackBerry 10 device. It's the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha. It includes a modified version of the BlackBerry PlayBook OS which shows the path to the BlackBerry 10 OS, which has been customized to a phone. This device will allow developers to test the applications they are building with our BlackBerry 10 toolsets.

We are only offering this device to our BlackBerry 10 Jam developer attendees, as it is a prototype testing device meant specifically for them. This is not a commercial product and will not be seeded to our end users or attendees of BlackBerry World. There is limited capacity for BlackBerry 10 Jam, so developers should register as soon as possible to be part of this amazing opportunity."